It was a terrible accident: the bus, horribly mangled on the outskirts of a road, after crashing into a coal truck; badly injured people trapped in the wreckage, unable to free themselves, with some, unfortunately, having already died before help could arrive.
However, in the dying chaos, a voice, though faint, injected a strong hope for the living -- not for herself, but for the others: "I am the guide, and I am obligated to help my tour group."
Wen Huazhi, a 23-year-old tour guide, declined help for herself insisting the rescuers try to save all the survivors trapped in the grave wreckage, at the cost of her left leg.
The accident in Yan'an of northwest China's Shaanxi Province claimed 6 deaths and seriously injured 14.
The passenger bus that Wen and her tourists were in ran into a truck carrying coal on their way to a tour site. Later, when Wen regained consciousness for the first time after the heavy collision, only to find her lower body pinned in her seat, rendering her unable to move at all.
Wen's lower leg was broken, with the bone already exposed outside. What was even more painful was when she found the bus driver and another tour guide, who sat near her, already dead before rescuers could arrive.
However, she refused to be rescued when aid first came to her, "As the tour guide, I am obliged to put my tourists first," she insisted.
One of the survivors recalled the breathtaking scene. "It was a terrible crash and it took quite a long time for the rescuers to get each one of us free," he said. "I wouldn't have managed to make it until I was rescued if Wen hadn't struggled to encourage us to hold on."
Wen, despite her own trapped and injured body, and at the risk of dying, mightily struggled to let out her voice to warn the tourists not to fall asleep during the long wait, or they might not wake up again. Actually, Wen herself passed out several times but struggled to open her eyes for the sake of her tourists.
So finally, after a long wait of more than two hours, Wen, the last survivor, was rescued. A traffic policeman, who got Wen out of the chaos said, "As a policeman myself, I can't help admiring Wen's courage and morality."
The local hospital announced the incredible earth-shattering news after they examined Wen: She had 9 fractures in her left leg, a right thighbone fracture, 3 hipbone fractures, and 4 rib fractures on the right side. Because of the grave wounds on her left leg, the doctors had to amputate the leg on her second day in the hospital.
Wen Huazhi (right) is helped by her sister to use a notebook on January 18, 2006.
The doctor-in-charge lamented over her leg cut, saying: "Her leg could have been kept if she had been sent to us earlier."
So what does the future hold for Wen, a still-young tour guide, but now one without her left leg?
"I don't regret doing this for my tourists at all," she said, smiling. "I just did my duty."
Wen's regretless sacrifice to her tourists wins people's respects as return. Wen once appeared in a local tour guide contest on wheelchair. The smiling young girl received a thundering and long clapping and hurrah from the spectators, some even with tears in their eyes.
The brave young girl hasn't dropped any tear or poured out any complaint about pain at all since the accident happened. "It will only make others more painful than I," she explained. Instead, without one leg though, she always wears a sweet smile on her face.
"I may study in a university," she said, concerning her future. The hospital has decided to give her an artificial leg after this year's Spring Festival and Wen expressed she would go back to working as a tour guide if she is able to walk well with the artificial leg.
(China Daily January 20, 2006)
